The retail prices of oil and petrol will be kept unchanged for the next 15 days, the ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade announced on Thursday.

The two ministries review fuel prices every 15 days to keep domestic prices in line with swings in the global market.

Accordingly, the retail price of bio-fuel E5 RON 92 will not be higher than VND16,272 (US$0.7) per litre, and that of RON 95 not more than VND17,603. The ceiling prices of diesel and kerosene will be maintained at VND14,909 and VND14,185 per litre, respectively. Meanwhile, the cost of ethanol E100, which is used to produce E5 petrol, stood at VND15,458 per litre before tax.

The two ministries decided to maintain the petrol prices to support production of domestic firms and control inflation prior to 2019’s Lunar New Year.

This time, subsidies for E5 RON92 are VND1,673 per litre (previously VND1,462 per litre), VND825 per litre for RON95 (previously VND645 per litre), as well as VND1,003 per litre for diesel (previously VND430 per litre).

The falling trend in petrol price stopped after six consecutive downward adjustments. At this level, the petrol price is still VND2,500 lower than the price at the beginning of 2018.

The average global price of petrol products during the last 15 days to January 31 was at $59.674 per barrel for RON 92 and $82.368 for diesel.

This has been the third consecutive time where the petrol prices have been kept unchanged so far this year. — VNS

The Co.op Food store chain under Saigon Co.op will open four new stores this weekend in Can Tho, Binh Duong, Long An and Ha Noi, raising the total number of its stores to over 400 after more than 10 years in the Vietnamese consumer goods market.